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​With schools in many countries now being shut indefinitely in an effort to stop the coronavirus outbreak, many parents are increasingly worried about what they can do to support their child’s learning at home over the next few weeks and possibly months. One subject in particular that many parents need help with is maths. While some children may have already been given maths worksheets by their teachers to work on, it will likely be a matter of days before they start to lose their interest in having to routinely solve pages and pages of maths problems. Here at MathsThroughStories.org, we believe that the use of storytelling could serve as an effective maths learning strategy while keeping your child firmly engaged in their maths learning. What’s more – this strategy is not limited to just pre-school children, but is applicable to those in primary (elementary) schools and beyond too.​

​Which stories and how to access them?

We have previously explained what we mean by maths stories in our earlier blog post, and how storytelling (particularly the picture book format) could help to enrich maths learning in another blog post, so we won’t be repeating them here, though we would encourage you to read these blog posts as well if you have not done so already. The focus of this blog post is more practical in nature, specifically how parents go about choosing which maths story picture books they could use and how to access them.

Concerning the former, our non-profit MathsThroughStories.orgwebsite contains the world’s largest database of recommendations for maths stories (500+). For your convenience, these recommendations are sorted firstly by maths topics, and then by age groups. You can find our Recommendations page here.

To access these books, you can either purchase them on-line (using platforms like Amazon) or find free videos of people reading many of these books on YouTube. We have partnered up with KidTime StoryTime, a YouTube channel, who works hard to get proper permission from publishers to record videos of them reading various story picture books including the many titles that are also on our Recommendations database. To access these videos by KidTime StoryTime, click here. There are also several other YouTube videos of people reading maths story picture books. However, as many of them have not sought permission from publishers to record videos of themselves reading these stories in their entirety, we would not be able to officially and publicly recommend them here, but “if you look, you shall find”.

If where you live is not under a lockdown, then you may also find some of our recommended maths story picture books in your local bookstores or public library.

It is also worth briefly noting here that all the maths story picture books on our Recommendations database are in English language. That said, many of these books have also been translated by their publishers to several other languages. If you want to use these maths story picture books in non-English languages, some of them do exist, but you will need to do a bit of detective work on Google to find them or simply directly contact relevant publishers. An example below is of ‘A Mousy Mess’ (Driscoll, 2014) with a maths focus on sorting and classifying skills. The story has been translated to Chinese and Spanish. (We will talk more about this story later in this blog post.)​

​How to use stories to enhance your child's maths learning?Many well-written maths story picture books can almost “do the teaching” to young readers themselves without the support of teachers and parents. However, if your children are too young to read independently, then of course you will need to support them with the reading if a printed copy of the story books is used. If the YouTube video version is used, then your children can listen to the stories being read to them.However, you should not limit your role to being just a reader. You can do more to help your child get the most out of their maths stories, for example, by asking a series of questions to draw their attention to the maths elements in the story or by providing resources to facilitate their maths learning based on the story.​

Concerning the former (i.e. asking questions), we would suggest you giving your child an opportunity to read the story purely for pleasure the first time, and then to go over the story again the second time with the mathematical lens on. The kind of questions you can ask your child can be formulated in a way to foster their mathematical reasoning or to extend their mathematical thinking. To illustrate these examples, let’s use the the ‘A Mousy Mess’ story again. This is a story about a young mouse named Albert, his sister Wanda and their friend Leo who come out to play with a child’s toys before Albert accidentally knocks over the toys out of their different containers. Panicked, they quickly think of different ways to put these toys back to their containers so the people would not know that they had been there. Initially, some toys are sorted by their colour, while others are sorted by their shapes and sizes. Then, Albert finds a “big blue round roll-y ball” which can go into more than one pile. This prompts the mice to rethink about how best the toys should be sorted and organised. To foster your child’s mathematical reasoning, you could ask them why the “big blue round roll-y ball” could go into more than one pile or group. To extend their mathematical thinking, you could give them a few other everyday objects for them to try to sort them into one of the groups (or a combination of the groups). Moreover, you could also ask them to come up with their own sorting criteria (e.g. texture, price, etc.).

Concerning the latter (i.e. providing resources), once your child has read or listened to the story, you could then ensure that your child has access to a wide range of everyday objects for them to try to sort them out into groups, that is to provide opportunities for your child to interact with concrete materials to give them a solid foundation that could subsequently lead them to the development of more advanced abstract thinking about classification (e.g. sorting numbers into odd and even numbers; sorting numbers into prime numbers and square numbers; sorting 2D shapes based on the number of vertices [angles], etc.).

The MathsThroughStories.org website has several ideas on what questions could be asked and what resources could be used to maximise maths learning opportunities. These ideas are drawn from story-based maths lessons taught by experienced teachers in different countries around the world and you can access them for free here.Catering for the maths learning needs of older studentsMaths story picture books for older students​It is crucial to stress that the use of maths story picture books is not for pre-school children only. There are several well written maths story picture books that cater to the learning needs of older primary (elementary) school students and secondary school students, for example, most titles in the Sir Cumference series as well as ‘What's Your Angle, Pythagoras?’ (Ellis, 2004) and ‘One Grain of Rice’ (Demi, 1997) which can be used to introduce the Pythagorean theorem and exponential growth respectively. Again, several other age-appropriate titles can be found on our Recommendations page.

Older students creating their own mini maths story picture books

​Another way to enhance maths learning through storytelling for older students is by getting them to create their own mini maths story picture books (e.g. just 5-10 pages). It is worth highlighting here that we are not talking about just “writing maths stories”, but for them to actually “create maths story picture books”, that is for them to carefully think about how to visually illustrate abstract maths concepts via their page illustrations too. By contextualising and visualising abstract maths concept (i.e. through coming up with a relevant context/storyline and page illustrations respectively), we argue that it could foster students’ conceptual understanding in maths concepts. Just because a child knows, for example, that 5 x 4 equals 20 does not necessarily mean that they conceptually understand what the concept of multiplication means. In one of our on-going research projects, many 8-9 years-old children in the study when asked to come up with a word problem to represent, for example, 5 x 4, they would write something like: “If Jim has 5 sweets, and his mum gives him 4 more sweets, how many sweets does Jim have altogether?” Learning maths in a way that also helps to develop one’s conceptual understanding is thus crucial.

A few simple steps to help your child develop their very own mini maths story picture books:

1) decide on which maths topic to focus on in their story (e.g. multiplication);2) ask them to think of a problem or a crisis in which having the knowledge of that topic could help to meaningfully solve that problem / crisis;3) think of settings and characters;4) think of how that maths topic could be visually represented in their page illustrations; and5) bring all of these ideas together using our suggested maths story template which is downloadable here.

If you would like to learn more about enhancing maths learning through creating maths story picture books, read another one of our blog posts on this topic here. In 2019, the MathsThroughStories.org project launched the world’s first international maths story writing competition for young maths learners, and you can find examples of winning and shortlisted maths story picture books from the 2019 competition here. One particular example of maths story picture books we like from the 2019 competition is by Harriet, an 11-years-old pupil from the UK, and her story is titled 'Mindfulness through Maths'. You can read her story here. (Details of the 2020 competition can be found here.)

​Final wordsWe hope you find this blog post useful in giving you some ideas of how to enrich your child’s maths learning at home. Of course, we do not suggest that what we have recommended should be the only thing your child do to enhance their maths learning. What we simply argue for here is that instead of just letting your child routinely solving pages and pages of maths worksheets mindlessly, let’s balance their diet by giving them something different, cross curricular, effective and engaging as well.

If you do decide to use storytelling to enhance your child's maths learning at home, please share your experience with us on social media by, for example, tagging us @MathsStories on Twitter and @MathsThroughStories on Facebook and Instagram. To learn more about our MathsThroughStories.orginitiative, please take time to explore our website or watch this video.

​We should be grateful if you could help share this blog post with other parents on social media!

​About the authorDr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai is a Lecturer in Primary Mathematics Education at the University of Reading’s Institute of Education (UK), and founder of MathsThroughStories.org. His website is Natthapoj.org, and he tweets at @NatthapojVinceT.

​In my previous blog posts, I have explained what mathematical story picture books (MSPBs) are, and their key features that could help to enhance pupils’ mathematics learning. In this blog post, I will attempt to convince you to see that pupils should be encouraged not just to read MSPBs, but also to create them.

​The idea of getting pupils to develop their mathematical understanding through creating their own MSPBs is an innovative mathematics learning strategy that I have been trying to highlight to mathematics teachers (and curriculum developers) in the UK and abroad.

Here, I am not talking about asking pupils to create a full-feature 30-page MSPB in one lesson. As a mathematics learning activity, pupils can simply be asked to create their own mini MSPB with just 10 pages (or so) whereby, for example, the first 2 pages set the scene and the problem to be solved by the characters; the next 6 pages can feature three variations (or attempts) in which the characters try to use their mathematical knowledge to solve the problem; and the story can come to a close on the last two pages.

Why should it matter?

When pupils create their own MSPBs, they need to carefully think about the storyline, which requires them to consider practical and meaningful applications of the mathematical concept in question. In brief, they need to contextualise abstract mathematical concepts. Additionally, as the focus is on presenting the stories in the picture book format, pupils also need to actively think about page illustrations, and how best to communicate abstract mathematical concepts and situations visually to their readers. As previously highlighted inmy other blog post, not only could learning mathematics through storytelling benefit pupils mathematically, it could also develop their language and creative writing skills and make possible a great cross-curricular teaching and learning opportunity. Equally important, the approach would allow pupils to see mathematics in a different light – one that is less test-driven, and more fun and imaginative. This is crucial especially if we want to improve pupils’ perceptions of the subject.

The preliminary findings of my pilot research with 8-9 years old Year 4 (Grade 3) pupils on the effectiveness of this mathematics learning activity is promising. Specifically, the results indicate that pupils in the intervention class (i.e. those that were asked to create MSPB on multiplication) had better conceptual understanding on multiplication (as measured through the study’s test) than their peers in the comparison class who learned multiplication the normal way (e.g. worksheets and textbooks, etc.). This pilot study was very small in scale, so I am spending this academic year to scale up the study to include over 1,300 pupils across 24 primary schools in the south east of England. Updates of this study will be posted on the project’s webpage here.

From a distance, having pupils create their own MSPB might look like a cute, fun activity. However, when you carefully examine this approach, you see just how pedagogically powerful it can be. I am surprised this approach has not been used more often, because it costs nothing in terms of resources – just a few sheets of A4 paper, a pencil and a splash of imagination!

This mathematics learning activity can also save you time! For example, if the concept in focus is multiplication, you could start the day with your maths lesson by getting your pupils to consider which everyday situations having knowledge about multiplication can help solve problems, and how the concept can be represented visually. Later in the literacy lesson, you could get your pupils to come up with the plot, characters and setting. You could also get them to work on their draft writing paying attention to things like grammar. After lunch, in the art lesson, you could get them to work on page illustrations, and putting their MSPB together. Before home time, the pupils could read their MSPB with the help of a visualiser to their peers. This one activity can be meaningfully integrated across different curricular subjects throughout the day. What’s more – you would have just one set of works to mark.

​What’s next?

If you are inspired by this blog post, I hope you will give this pedagogical approach a go in your future maths lessons! You do not need to ask your pupils to create a MSPB in every single lesson throughout the school year: all I am asking is for you to consider, for example, adopting this approach at the end of each maths topic unit where pupils can use this opportunity to consolidate their learning of that topic unit.

Moreover, I hope you will encourage your pupils to take part in MathsThroughStories.org’s Young Mathematical Story Author (YMSA) competition, which is an annual international competition set up to encourage young mathematics learners (8-15 years old) from around the world to embed their mathematics learning in a meaningful and engaging context through creating their own MSPBs. More details of this competition can be found hereand you can find winning and shortlisted entries from the 2019 competitionhere.

​

​About the author

Dr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai is a Lecturer in Primary Mathematics Education at the University of Reading’s Institute of Education (UK), and founder of MathsThroughStories.org. His website is Natthapoj.org, and he tweets at @NatthapojVinceT.

​​​​The idea of using mathematical story picture books (MSPBs) to enrich mathematics learning is not a new idea. In fact, it has been around for almost three decades, particularly in the early years setting. What is less common is using MSPBs to enrich mathematics learning beyond the early years level. I have been arguing - and will continue to argue - that the approach could also benefit mathematics learning of older pupils. Specifically, I would argue that the use of MSPBs could: foster pupils’ conceptual understanding through multi-representation of mathematical concepts, variation of mathematical situations and the use of common misconceptions as a teaching point; develop language skills; and foster engagement with mathematics learning.

Photo courtesy of the University of Reading's Institute of Education

​Foster conceptual understanding through multi-representationWe can all (hopefully) agree that we do not teach mathematics so that our pupils become a human calculator, that is someone who is good at churning out correct mathematical answers but without conceptually understanding the concept behind it.As part of one of my research projects, when Jack (pseudonym), a 9-year-old pupil, was asked by me what 20 ÷ 5 equals to, he was able to give me the correct answer (4) almost instantly. Then, when he was asked to (contextually) represent 20 ÷ 5 using a word problem, this is what he came up with: “Spanish Yoda had a can of Coke and a bag of bananas and apples and paint. How much did it cost her? Coke: £1.00. Bag of bananas: £2.00. Apples: £8.00. Paint: £9.00. Total £20.00”. How Jack’s word problem is related to 20 ÷ 5 remains a mystery.What Jack demonstrates here is a classic example of pupils whose procedural fluency (i.e. the mechanic aspect of mathematical learning) in relation to division is good, but have yet to fully grasp what the concept means conceptually.As many mathematics education scholars have argued, in order to demonstrate conceptual understanding in mathematics, pupils must be able to represent mathematical concepts in different ways using different representations (e.g. contextualisation, visualisation, etc.). Here, I would argue that key features of MSPBs, such as narrative and page illustrations, make learning mathematics conceptually effective as pupils get to learn mathematical concepts through these different representations.

Take ‘Divide and Ride’(Murphy, 1997), for example. This is a story about a group of eleven friends who want to go on carnival rides. Some of these rides have two-people seats, others have three- and four-people seats. As these seats have to be filled up before each ride can begin, the children constantly have to work out how to group themselves. Due to 11 being a prime number, there is always, at least, one person being left out (a remainder), and additional children are consequently invited to join their group to fill up the seats for each ride. Through the storyline, children can visually see how division works and what a remainder means in real life. This helps children to contextualize the concept. Additionally, not only do the illustrations depict division through images of children filling up the seats, they also include a mathematical model at the bottom of each page to represent the divisional situation in a different way as well as corresponding numerals to help children connect visual representation with symbolic representation.

​Theoretically speaking, the more children are able to make meaningful connections between different representations of mathematical concepts, the more conceptual understanding they are demonstrating. Thus, effective mathematical story picture books carefully look at how these different representations can be combined seamlessly throughout the story.​

Another key strength of teaching mathematics using MSPBs is the development of pupils’ conceptual understanding in mathematics through what I refer to as the variation of mathematical situations that are often found in well-written MSPBs. To explain this concept, take ‘Bean Thirteen’ (McElligott, 2007) as an example. The story follows two crickets, Ralph and Flora, who have collected twelve beans to bring home for dinner. When Flora decides to pick one more bean (i.e. Bean Thirteen), Ralph is convinced it will bring bad luck. No matter how many friends they invite to try to share the 13 beans equally, it is always impossible.Situation 1: 13 beans to be shared between 2 crickets (Ralph and Flora) resulting in 1 remaining bean (6 beans each)Situation 2: 13 beans to be shared between 3 crickets (Ralph, Flora and 1 friend) resulting in 1 remaining bean (4 beans each)Situation 3: 13 beans to be shared between 4 crickets (Ralph, Flora and 2 friends) resulting in 1 remaining bean (3 beans each)Situation 4: 13 beans to be shared between 5 crickets (Ralph, Flora and 3 friends) resulting in 3 remaining beans (2 beans each)Situation 5: 13 beans to be shared between 6 crickets (Ralph, Flora and 4 friends) resulting in 1 remaining bean (2 beans each)In this example, while the number of crickets varies, the number of beans is invariant (kept the same). Through this variation of mathematical situations, rich mathematical investigations are made possible. Pupils can be asked, for example, to continue the pattern to prove that 13 cannot be divided evenly by any other numbers except for 13 itself (and hence demonstrating the meaning of prime numbers in the process). I argue that such variation of mathematical situations is crucial to foster pupils’ conceptual understanding in mathematics.

​Another example of variation of mathematical situations can be found in ‘Fractions in Disguise’ (Einhorn, 2014). This story focuses on the concept of equivalent fractions and it is about how George Cornelius Factor (who happens to share the same acronym, GCF, with – wait for it – the greatest common factor!) invents a machine, called ‘Reducer’ to help him find a very sought-after fraction (5/9) that has been stolen from a fraction auction, and has been disguised as another fraction by the villainous Dr. Brok. While at Dr. Brok’s mansion, GCF uses his Reducer machine to reveal the true form of a range of fractions (e.g. 3/21 is really 1/7; 34/63 is already in its true form; 8/10 is really 4/5, and so on) before he comes across 35/63 which is later revealed as the 5/9 fraction he has been looking for.

Through such variation of mathematical situations, both ‘Bean Thirteen’ and ‘Fractions in Disguise’ make it possible for their readers to take their time to digest the new mathematical concept they are learning by providing them with several mathematical situations or examples to show them what is and what is not prime numbers and equivalent fractions, for example. The goal is that once they have seen enough examples of what is and what is not prime numbers and equivalent fractions, they will arrive at their own definition (and hence understanding) of these concepts themselves. Authors of well-written mathematical stories think carefully about what kind of variation their story needs that could help scaffold students’ learning of a mathematical concept in question. ​

​Foster deeper understanding using common misconceptions as a teaching point Effective mathematical stories incorporate readers’ common misconceptions about a particular mathematical topic in the stories as a teaching point. A good example is‘Sir Cumference and the Fracton Faire’ (Neuschwander, 2017) which follows Sir Cumference and his wife, Lady Di of Ameter, to a local Fracton Faire where local goods are sold and where different shopkeepers show how numerators and denominators can be useful for customers to indicate how much of each product they want to buy (e.g. one-fourth of a roll of fabric, four-eights of a cheese wheel). The story addresses a common misconception that the bigger the denominators, the larger the parts. Specifically, in the story, Sir Cumference is surprised to learn that four-eights of a cheese wheel that he wants is the same size as two-fourths of the same cheese wheel that Lady Di has chosen. Authors of effective mathematical stories do research and consult with experienced mathematics educators to identify such common mathematical misconceptions and weave them in their story.

​Develop language skills From my earlier research (Trakulphadetkrai, Courtney, Clenton, Treffers-Daller, & Tsakalaki, 2017) and those of others, it has been found that children’ mathematical abilities are linked to their language abilities. What is exciting is how recent research (e.g. Hassinger-Das, Jordan, & Dyson, 2015; Purpura, Napoli, Wehrspann, & Gold, 2017) have also found the positive impact of using stories when teaching mathematics concepts to young children on the development of their language abilities particularly their vocabulary knowledge. Why not kill two birds with one stone? Why not teach mathematics using MSPBs to develop both pupils’ mathematical and language development at the same time?

Engagement through emotional investment Another key advantage of teaching mathematics using MSPBs is that pupils arguably do not see MSPBs in the same way that they see, for example, mathematics textbooks or worksheets with word problems after word problems to be solved. They are more likely to view MSPBs as something that they can be emotionally invested in, and something that they can enjoy interacting with over and over again either together with the whole class or in their own time at their own pace. Research (e.g. McAndrew, Morris, & Fennell, 2017) has recently found that the use of stories in mathematics teaching can help to foster children’s positive attitude towards the subject.

Photo courtesy of the University of Reading's Institute of Education

​Final wordsTeaching mathematics using MSPBs should not only be found in Nursery and Reception classes. This creative, cross-curricular and research-informed mathematics teaching and learning approach should too be utilised by teachers teaching at the primary school level and beyond.

​If you want to explore our 500+ recommendations for MSPBs that can be used to cover 40+ mathematical concepts, please head to our Recommendations here, and if you want to see examples of how MSPBs can be integrated as part of your mathematics teaching, see some of our examples here.

​About the authorDr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai is a Lecturer in Primary Mathematics Education at the University of Reading’s Institute of Education (UK), and founder of MathsThroughStories.org. His website is Natthapoj.org, and he tweets at @NatthapojVinceT.

Defining stories can be difficult. Haven (2007) attributes this difficulty to the fact that stories are “so interwoven into the fabric of our lives and minds that we can’t step far enough away from our storied world to view stories objectively” (p. 10). Nevertheless, attempts to define the concept have been made. For example, Bruner (2002, pp. 16-17), a leading scholar in the field of educational psychology and narrative, argued that a story must involve a cast of characters who have:

recognisable expectations about the ordinary state of the world, the story’s world [...]. A story begins with some breach in expected state of things [...]. Something goes awry, otherwise there’s nothing to tell about. The story concerns efforts to cope [...] with the breach and its consequences. And finally there is an outcome, some sort of resolution.

The way stories involve not only characters but also some sort of a struggle or a problem for the characters to solve lends itself perfectly for mathematics teaching and learning whereby characters find themselves having to use their mathematical knowledge and skill to solve a problem that they face in the story. An example of mathematical stories, defined in this way, include ‘A Mousy Mess’ (Driscoll, 2014). This is a story about a young mouse named Albert, his sister Wanda and their friend Leo who come out to play with a child’s toys before Albert accidentally knocks over the toys out of their different containers. Panicked, they quickly think of different ways to put these toys back to their containers so the people would not know that they had been there. Initially, some toys are sorted by their colour, while others are sorted by their shapes and sizes. Then, Albert finds a big blue round roll-y ball which can go into more than one pile. This prompts the mice to rethink about how best the toys should be sorted and organised. The story encourages young readers to think of other ways the toys can be sorted to help Albert, Wanda and Leo solve the problem.

​However, we know from experience that not every story necessarily has to have a struggle or a problem for characters to solve. Take the much-loved ‘Handa’s Surprise’(Browne, 2014) as an example. Set in a village of the Luo tribe in south-west Kenya, this story is about a girl, Handa, who wants to surprise her friend, Akeyo, with seven delicious fruits. Handa put the fruits in a basket, which itself sits on Handa’s head. Along the journey to see Akeyo, seven different mischievous animals take the fruits one by one from the basket without Handa knowing, until there is nothing left. As she is walking past a tangerine tree, lots of tangerines fall onto the basket on top of Handa’s head (presumably very gently and very quietly!). By the time she sees Akeyo, Handa is herself surprised to see lots of tangerines in the basket instead of the seven different fruits she picked for her friend. In this story, there are certainly characters and a storyline (regardless of how simple it is), but no problems nor struggles for Handa to solve, and yet this story provides a meaningful context for young readers to learn a range of mathematical concepts, such as subtraction.

Stories can thus be defined more liberally as any narratives that simply have a storyline and a character(s). While such characterisation might seem painfully obvious to some, it is crucial to make explicit these key components of a story. This is particularly important as not every picture book has a story. Let’s take, for example, ‘One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab’ (Sayre & Sayre, 2003). While this book is very useful in helping young children learn to count and add through a series of illustrations of people and animals with different number of legs (e.g. “1 is a snail. 2 is a person. 3 is a person and a snail.”), it is not a mathematical story in that it contains no plots or storylines. It is a concept book with some lovely illustrations and some texts. That said, this should not necessarily be interpreted as concept books are inferior to mathematical story picture books. The key message here is simply that it is important that we all have a precise language to communicate with one another on what it is that we are referring to.

Here at MathsThroughStories.org, our focus is on mathematical story picture books, as opposed to concept books. The reason for this is that we strongly believe that the story component has the potential to make mathematics learning experience much more engaging and could be particularly useful for developing students' reading comprehension ability and vocabulary knowledge. I talk a bit more about these two points in my other blog post here.

In summary,mathematical story picture books (or MSPBs) are here referred to as picture books that contain a narrative relating to mathematical ideas or applications.

​Types of mathematical story picture booksStory picture books that are used to enhance mathematics teaching and learning can have either an explicit or implicit mathematical focus.Story picture books with an explicit mathematical focus can be quite easy to spot as they often have mathematical terms in their title as well as recommendations for relevant mathematics learning activities which can usually be found at the end of the book. Many of them are also often found as part of a mathematical story series. For example, ‘A Mousy Mess’ (Driscoll, 2014) that we have come across in the previous section is part of Kane Press’s Mouse Math series (20 titles altogether). Other series include: HarperCollins’s MathStarts series (63 titles), Scholastic’s Hello Math Reader series (40 titles), and Kane Press’s Math Matters series (42 titles). These series are perfect for Early Years and Key Stage 1 children. There are also Charlesbridge’s Math Adventure series (16 titles) and Sir Cumference series (10 titles), which are great for Key Stages 2 and 3 pupils (7-14 years old).However, stories that are great for mathematical teaching and learning do not have to have an explicit mathematical focus. In addition to ‘Handa’s Surprise’ (Browne, 2014) that we have already seen in the previous section, another example of story picture books with an implicit mathematical focus include ‘The Doorbell Rang’ (Hutchins, 1986). Nowhere in this story picture book did the author claim it to be written for mathematics teaching and learning, and yet the narrative lends itself nicely to mathematical investigations as shown here.

Quite often, the teachers who have what I refer to as mathematical lens, or the ability to identify meaningful opportunities for mathematics teaching and learning in story picture books with an implicit mathematical do not need to rely on explicit mathematical story picture books. Such ability can be particularly useful for teachers working in a class or a school that may not be able to afford to buy new picture books with an explicit mathematical focus. With the mathematical lens on, teachers can use any of their existing story picture books and turn them into a mathematics teaching and learning resource.

Final words

Regardless of how explicit or implicit the mathematical focus is, mathematical story picture books can be a powerful mathematics teaching and learning tool for the reasons outlined in my other blog post.

​If you want to explore our 500+ recommendations for mathematical story picture books that can be used to cover 40+ mathematical concepts, please head to our Recommendations section here, and if you want to see examples of how mathematical story picture books can be integrated as part of your mathematics teaching, see some of our examples here.

Please use the Comments section below if you would like to discuss some of the ideas presented in this blog post.

About the authorDr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai is a Lecturer in Primary Mathematics Education at the University of Reading’s Institute of Education (UK), and founder of MathsThroughStories.org. His website is Natthapoj.org, and he tweets at @NatthapojVinceT.

​mathsthroughstories.org

ABOUT US

MathsThroughStories.org is a non-profit and research-based initiative, based at the University of Reading's Institute of Education (UK).

It sets out to help mathematics learners around the world develop their conceptual understanding in mathematics and to help them foster positive attitudes towards the subject through the power of storytelling.